WHEATFIELD – Twin Lakes could not overcome a two-minute South Bend St. Joseph rally to start the fourth quarter Saturday and lost 69-60 in the Class 3A regional semifinals at Kankakee Valley.

In the battle of the Indians, Twin Lakes finished its season at 16-8 while St. Joseph (18-6) moved on to play Bowman Academy in the regional final Saturday night.

Until the fourth quarter, neither team led by more than two possessions as the two sides spent most of the contest within one possession of each other. But St. Joseph’s 8-2 run to open the period proved just enough to give the game’s edge.

“I thought we played really well the first three quarters and we were really battling and hustling,” said Twin Lakes guard Cameron Bennington, who led the Indians with 17 points. “They came in strong the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. We missed shots and they made theirs to extend their lead, and it was hard to get back in.”

The run stretched St. Joseph’s 43-40 lead at the beginning of the period to 51-42. The closest Twin Lakes could trim the St. Joe deficit was 51-46 on a Tyler Reddington jumper with 4:26 left.

“In between the third and fourth quarters a couple of seniors were really passionate and challenging each other,” St. Joseph coach Mike Bauer said. “Twin Lakes was playing really well against us and we knew we had a do a better job at rebounding and taking care of the basketball, and we were able to do that.”

Twin Lakes took the lead on two different occasions in the third quarter, hitting its first three shots of the period. Holmes made two baskets from about 18 feet out and Reddington followed with a 3-pointer to give the Indians a 35-33 advantage after they trailed by three points at halftime.

But St. Joseph snatched the lead right back on a Ryan Wobbe back-door layup and a Greenan Sullivan basket in consecutive possessions.

Twin Lakes would grab the lead again on Bennington’s 3-pointer with 2:16 left, 40-39. But Twin Lakes would miss its last three shots of the quarter and another two at the free throw line as St. Joseph went up again on buckets by Sullivan and Matt Gergely.

“They didn’t do anything that surprised us,” Twin Lakes coach Kent Adams said. “We just played as hard as we could and made as many shots as we could. They were just a little bit bigger and a little bit faster than we were. They moved the ball around well.

“We could score, but it seemed we just couldn’t get that stop we needed to get a little breathing room when we had the lead. We never got a chance to extend a lead that would have really helped us.”

Both teams held the lead at various times in the first half, but St. Joseph went on an 8-2 run at the end of the second quarter after going with a half-court trap, forcing Twin Lakes into three turnovers. But Pritts made two free throws with 5.6 seconds left to cut St. Joseph’s lead to 31-28 at halftime.

“I know at some point I’ll be able to look back on it and say what a great season we had and one I know we’ll remember forever, but right now I’m just disappointed,” Bennington said. “We had really high expectations. We accomplished one goal winning sectionals, but we wanted to go a lot farther.”